298 Mr. David Sharp on 



and, as the larvae of the Eucnemida are extremely 

 abnormal and very little is known about them, I think 

 it worth while to record the results of my observations. 



The larva of Eucnemis ca'pucma has been imperfectly 

 described by the late lamented M. Ed. Perris from four 

 examples preserved in alcohol and in a contracted con- 

 dition ; his description will be found in de Bonvoulior's 

 * Monograph of the Eucnemides,' pp. 49 — 52, and it is 

 also figured pi. 2, ff. 1, 2. 



This larva possesses no rudiment of legs, and no 

 ocelli, and Perris was unable to detect any mouth, palpi, 

 or antennae. The figures given by Perris only offer a 

 very imperfect representation of the larva as seen in 

 life ; it is very much more elongate, and has the seg- 

 ments remarkably incised so that its outline is very 

 undulatory. In the Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1856, pi. 15, 

 f. 3,/', Coquerel gives a figure of Fornax madagascariensis, 

 and this figure gives a much better idea of the natural 

 outline of Eucnemis capucina larva than does the figure 

 of Perris, I. c. By a curious oversight Coquerel has, 

 however, represented the larva with one segment too 

 few. The head of Eucnemis capucina is most peculiar, 

 and is represented, I. c, f. 2, by Perris ; this figure is, 

 however, far too short and broad in general proportions, 

 and the central tooth is incorrectly delineated and made 

 to appear as two separate teeth, but its form is correctly 

 described on p. 50, I. c. 



The larva of this insect lives in decayed, but damp, 

 sappy wood, and exists there in burrows, in which it is 

 tightly packed, so that by a slight alteration of the 

 diameter of one or more of its segments it is enabled to 

 have a fixed point so as to locomote by alteration of the 

 length of other segments. The larvae I brought home 

 with me were most of them placed in a tin with rotten 

 wood and a few larvae of ElateridcB (these latter probably 

 the larvae of M<ia>t<)tiis rufipes and Elater pomome), and, 

 on taking them out of the tin, I found that all the larvae 

 of Eucnemis had been killed by being bitten by the 

 Elaterid larvae in the thoracic segments ; I had, how- 

 ever, taken the precaution to put one larva in a glass 

 tube by itself, and this one, being still alive, I am able 

 to exhibit it to-night. 



The killed larvae being quite fresh, I examined them 

 with the microscope, and then proceeded to make such 



